White ostrich feathers which, by long exposure to the show-window, or
by lying in store for a protracted time, have lost their whiteness and
turned yellow, and dyed feathers which, from the same causes, have
become dirty, pale and discolored, can be restored to their former
beauty by washing, respectively redyeing, as follows:
I. A washing process, which is ordinarily only applied to white
feathers which have become yellow, is as follows: Prepare a bath of
two gallons of water at 145°F., to which add half a gallon of liquid
ammonia (spirits of sal ammoniac, ammonia water); enter the feathers,
work them once well through with the hands, and lay them down in the
bath over night. On the following day take them up, wash them once
through a soap-bath at 145°F., pass them again through the first
ammoniacal bath, and rinse well and let them drain. Then prepare a
bath of cold water, to which add so much of a clear solution of methyl
violet 6 B., that a white china plate held about a foot below the
surface of the water, appears with a faint bluish tint, or such a blue
tone as is desired; and add to the bath so much sulphurous acid, that
it gives the liquid a well defined odor. When the sulphurous acid mixes
with the tinted liquid, the violet color of the latter disappears and
changes to a greenish tint, which, however, turns again to blue upon
the feathers when they are afterwards exposed to the action of the
air. The feathers are then passed, singly, if possible, through the
blue-bath, well drained, centrifugated or whizzed, starched and dried
as usual.
Colored feathers which have lost their freshness, and are to be redyed,
are simply washed clean with soap and rinsed, or they are stripped
of their color, as much as possible, with soap and oxalic acid, or
bleached with peroxyd of hydrogen, as described in the beginning;
whereupon they are dyed and treated like bleached new feathers, always
taking into consideration, however, what of the old color may remain
upon the feathers, may be utilizable as a bottom for the new color, or
even as a component of it, for instance, in the case of many modes and
several browns.
II. Another method of renovating ostrich feathers presents the
advantages that it is executed without the application of heat, that
it is a simple cleaning process which attacks no color, and that it
leaves the curling of the feathers intact, which is unavoidably taken
out of them by washing with warm water and soap, or any other alkaline
detergent substance. It is, therefore, only applied to feathers which
have lost their purity of color by exposure, and whose curling is to be
preserved, or is worthy of preserving. It is, in part, the same process
which is known as "dry washing" among scourers and dyers of garments,
and can be applied to feathers of any color and shade, white and even
black, without exception.
For this operation fill a basin or small wooden hand-tub with benzene,
add a handful or two of potato flour (sifted potato starch), enter the
feathers and rub them well through with the starch until clean; then
squeeze then out by hand and press between muslin, finally whiz or
shake them in the air until dry.
This process is partly chemical, in so far as the benzene loosens the
dust and other impurities which have settled upon the feathers, partly
mechanical, as the numerous fine particles of the potato starch, which
do not dissolve in benzene as soap does in water, rub these impurities
off from the feather. By the combined action of the benzene and starch,
and the friction applied, the feathers are not only cleaned, but the
flues completely opened, so that the feather thus treated looks
perfectly like new.
A remarkable feature of this process is that the starch carries nearly
all the impurities down with itself to the bottom of the wash-basin,
and becomes soiled, while the benzene takes up every little of them,
and can, therefore, after settling, be poured off from the starch
sediment, and can be used several times before it needs to be purified
or eventually becomes unfit for use.
In using benzene, which is a highly combustible substance, the utmost
precaution must be observed that no open flame or fire be in the
work-room, neither open lamps nor a fire in the stove burning. Even
doors leading to adjoining rooms, where lights or fires are burning,
ought to be kept closed while working with benzene, because the benzene
vapors, which may be carried to the flame by a draft of air, would
inevitably ignite and cause an explosion and fire. Occurrences of this
kind have been not unfrequently observed.
Feathers which have been cleaned by this process, as well as new
feathers, may be dyed by the following process.